Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird's recent mission to Latin America cannot mask Canada's unprecedented diplomatic isolation in the hemisphere. Despite shifting 'aid' to the region and claiming to have made Latin America a priority, Ottawa is increasingly offside with a region breaking free from centuries of Western imperialism.

Dozens of Venezuelans gathered last Saturday in a citizens' assembly across many of Canada's largest cities and demanded, in a public declaration, the restitution of constitutional order in Venezuela and that the sovereignty of their country be respected.